On the Radar

WHEN ASKED, Gail Atkinson can’t think of any other woman lobster boat captains where she fishes, in Area 33. But being a woman in the fishing industry is nothing new in Atkinson’s family.

Both her lobster boat and the company — Nellie Row — are named after Atkinson’s grandmother, one of the first women in boat design and building in the Maritimes. “It was just a part of how I grew up on Cape Sable Island [in Nova Scotia]. Everything there is about fishing and boats,” she says. “I don’t know how many generations back.” In those days, the whole family participated in the process, including knitting the nets and building the traps.

Atkinson started fishing for tuna with her father and got “hooked.” Her maritime journey led her from commercial fishing to obtaining her own commercial mariner’s licence, becoming a chief mate on Canada’s iconic sailing vessel, the Bluenose II. “I had myself set up on the water 365 days if I wanted to be, every season, which worked for me.”

Then, in 2015 at age 50, she took a monumental risk, borrowing money to purchase her first fishing licence. “I looked around me and thought, God, if these guys can do it, surely I can,” she recalls. Now, Atkinson owns multiple fishing licences and she fishes 375 lobster traps out of the port in Lunenberg. Not that it’s been easy. This intensely competitive industry doesn’t inspire camaraderie, especially when you’re the only woman captain. “They didn’t embrace me in the beginning, and they’re still not embracing me now. And I don’t want them to embrace me, anyway. I’m just gonna do my thing.”

And Atkinson does it very well. She recently expanded her business by opening a seasonal lobster shack in Lunenburg, where locals bring pots to pick up fresh lobster, and she’s also considering a restaurant. She was credited with having the first all-female lobster-fishing crew in the province — and, possibly, in Canada — although currently, there are some male crew members, including her 18-year-old nephew, Cole Nickerson. She hopes he will take over the business someday to help her restore the family legacy. “I don’t have any of my own children, so it’s been really powerful for me. I get the chance to really teach and pass on something. That makes it all the more meaningful.”